werrrd

Liam

I sometimes volunteer. The work involves talking to youth who seek help. We’ve all been young before… we know that when we are children everything seems so much more serious. We are all so much more dramatic. Like Romeo and Juliet… they couldn’t be together in life.. so instead of just moving on and finding another to love they killed themselves.

But what these youth are feeling.. it isn’t silly to them.. and some of it isn’t silly to us. Some youth have experienced abuse, others have thoughts of killing themselves, and still others are dealing with unrequited love. All of these things are equally serious, and they deserve attention.

Yesterday I talked to a girl about her sexuality. AFTER I watched the season finale to MTV’s Faking It. When I watched the show, I was irritated. I thought: just another show where lesbians again look like they go back to men like feelings for women aren’t real.

However, I reflected how representation has been much better lately than in earlier media. Then I talked to the young lady, and remembered that young people don’t know what they want out of life. It’s okay for them to question whom they are attracted to, and as humans we are built to find answers to our questions. The young lady needed my support. She needed to hear that there is nothing wrong with the fact that she is questioning herself because of sudden feelings for the fairer sex. She needed to hear that it is okay to take her time to figure it out.

Then I thought… why is it okay for people to say this to straight girls as if because she is coming over to the rainbow side it’s okay that she is figuring things out?? Why can’t Amy, who has declared herself gay for Karma, take the time to figure herself out as well? Why is it that when a lesbian has sex with a guy she’s a traitor or automatically straight or considered so much of an abomination that Skittles doesn’t have a flavor for her?

Of course, we don’t know what sex with Liam means yet… but they both were quite clear about their feelings for Karma… so I predict regret and shame and awkwardness in Season 2.

But, my own initial reactions are representative of lots of people. I’ve read some hateful comments about the finale on the internets. Lesbians are bitter and angry about Amy’s drunken sex-capade with Liam. Yet, there are some of us who tried to convince ourselves and others of straight-ness by having sex with guys or relationships with men. It’s part of humanity to discover who we are. To convince ourselves that we aren’t gay first, and then become okay with it. It’s part of our journey to grow into who we are meant to be. Why shouldn’t television, which sometimes aim to represent real life, display the same journey in life?

I personally did not need the aid of other people to figure myself out. Once I knew I was gay, that was that and I hid it as long as possible on my own. But I have been involved with both straight girls and bisexual women.. the terminating result made me bitter for a long time so I understand where the stereotypes come from as well as the angry reaction from lesbians who cling to the stereotypes.

However… reflection tells me that humans will always question themselves (their sexuality, clothes, career choice, etc.), and we learn from a young age that we should find answers. It’d be best to do so without hurting others, I think. But some people need to leave a tornado in their wake.

Some people need chaos in order to avoid it the next time. And people who are dealing with feelings of homosexuality are the same as people who are dealing with feelings of heterosexuality who are the same as people who are dealing with feelings for both who are the same as people who are dealing with feelings for absolutely no one…

And a tornado is exactly what Amy and Liam have just created. I don’t care that Karma is a unsavory person, and I don’t care how much she hurt Amy, and I don’t care how badly acted drunk Liam and Amy are.. you don’t claim you love someone and then do what they have done. I’m not a fan of what happened in the season finale.. Amy can sex her feelings away with some other guy, not the one your best friend is in love with. This makes Amy worse than Karma somehow… because while Karma was flaunting her feels for Liam in Amy’s face, Karma was also unaware of Amy’s feels for her. Amy is completely aware of how Karma feels for Liam.

I shake my head at this despicable ending. Not because Amy needs to reassert her heterosexuality after being hurt in her vulnerable homosexual skin… and not because Liam has fallen for a girl in a committed relationship… but because these two lashed out in the worst way possible.